A Tunisian non-governmental organization (NGO) that defends minorities and campaigns, among other issues, against anti-Semitism, has accused a controversial militia close to the ruling Islamists of attacking its offices.
"Our offices were broken into and vandalized. We have just filed a complaint. We know very well who did that. It was the League for the Protection of the Revolution, which has threatened us several times," said Yamina Thabet, head of the Tunisian Association for the Defense of Minorities, on Wednesday.
She said members of the League in the Tunis suburbs of Kram and Goulette had warned the NGO of reprisals after it organized a ceremony on December 29 to commemorate the deportation of Tunisian Jews during the Holocaust.
"They accused us of being Zionists, and other things that I don't dare repeat. They told us: 'We will deal with you'," Thabet told AFP.
She said Interior Minister Ali Layedh had promised "to take charge of the matter himself."
The League for the Protection of the Revolution, a militia allied to the Ennahda party that heads the ruling coalition, has been implicated in acts of violence that have caused outrage in Tunisia.
It is accused of beating to death a representative of a secular opposition party in southern Tunisia last October and of attacking the headquarters of the country's main labor union in the capital in December, according to the news agency.
As a result, a number of political parties and NGOs have called for it to be banned.
The Tunisian Association for the Defense of Minorities is active in campaigning against anti-Semitism and last month lodged a complaint against an imam, accusing him of
inciting hatred against Jews in a fiery sermon broadcast on television.